| | | | | | This edition of The Weekender goes out to everyone plotting their commute strategy to The Dolby Theatre in 24 hours. Good luck, here's a selection from The Hollywood Reporter's blockbuster Oscars issue for the road. — Erik Hayden
+ Ticker: Razzies revealed; Rebel Wilson's PR mess; Access Hollywood done after 30 years; Prime Video's ad-free price hike; $116M-plus on Oscars bets so far...
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The Victor David Zaslav is running a company that had a share price of $10 a year ago. Now he is the toast of Wall Street, more than tripling the company’s value as Paramount, Netflix and NBCUniversal circled the prize. Zaslav himself is poised to exit with shares worth just shy of $800 million, according to Equilar, including the $114 million or so in stock he sold March 3, just days after the Paramount deal was announced. Alex Weprin's report.
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The Comeback A year ago, Warner Bros. power duo Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy were considered dead in the water. Now they head into the Academy Awards with frontrunners One Battle After Another and Sinners, a string of hits behind them — and an uncertain future. Scott Feinberg's feature.
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Up to Them? Gen Z loves PG movies, buy tickets with their whole family, and post their reviews on social media. Now they’re the primary customers at movie theaters. In 2025, they represented 39 percent of the audience in North America, up from 34 percent in 2019: "Gen Zers don’t want their parents’ franchises." Pamela McClintock and Lily Ford's report. |
Movie Stars Wanted No experience necessary. Welcome to the wild world of casting non-professional actors, a practice that is in the spotlight this year as the Academy inaugurates the casting Oscar. The method brings its own risks and rewards. Katie Kilkenny's report.
+ 92 casting pros pick who would've won best casting over the last 15 years.
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The Rikers Interview In his first major sit-down from behind bars, disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein fumes about life at Rikers ("I’m dying here"), his wrecked legacy and his delusions about the future ("I will be proven innocent. That I promise you"). Maer Roshan's Q&A.
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The Forecast For Oscars Best Picture...
WILL WIN One Battle After Another "Genre films aren’t always awards catnip, but Sinners landed an all-time record 16 Oscar noms, won the best cast Actor Award and may be a beneficiary of the preferential ballot. However, One Battle After Another, though it landed three fewer noms, has dominated the precursor awards — from the Directors Guild and Producers Guild to the Globes, Critics Choice and BAFTAs — so it remains the safer bet. The sleeper: Hamnet."— Scott Feinberg
SHOULD WIN One Battle After Another "I’d choose The Secret Agent here since there was no more complex or skillfully executed movie in 2025. But the chances of the Brazilian political thriller pulling off a Parasite victory seem slim to none, so I’ll go with Paul Thomas Anderson’s radical epic: wildly entertaining but also timely as it taps into collective discontent with creeping authoritarianism and vilification of otherness, with a stellar ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio." — David Rooney
All Should Win, Will Win Picks I Oscars Math Odds I Scott's Final Picks
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They Said It "I think it’s a version of Andy, is the way to think about it." — John Jelley, svp product at Peacock, on unveiling an AI-generated Andy Cohen as a feature. "As we continue to drive BET’s growth, our stories have to live in more places." — From a memo by BET Networks president Louis Carr on the shuttering of its streaming service BET+ and content moving to Paramount+. "His comment to me was, 'I would love my show to be free.'" — Banijay Americas CEO Ben Samek, on why Phil Rosenthal's Somebody Feed Phil left Netflix for YouTube. "Behind every headline is the person who booked the car." — The pitch for a podcast from Elite Staffing consultant Meghan Grimm that features interviews with stars and their assistants. "They knew the workers were coming." — Labor rep David Huerta on NBCUniversal and ABM Industries rehiring more than 100 union janitors, averting a major protest at NBCU locations. |
At Your Service Looking for a hint of Conan O'Brien's Oscars monologue? The man Stephen Colbert calls "the patron saint of ex-talk show hosts" has a few things to say about the late night crisis, still sweating every joke and dancing with disaster by hosting the Oscars — again. Mikey O'Connell's profile. |
Awards Season Awards Who took home 'honors' for... Brightest Future in Another Line of Work Quickest Oscar Hopeful KO The AARP Award For Tired Taste
Miss Uncongeniality ...and more superlatives in THR's annual look back. Mikey O'Connell's column. |
Remember This? Do you recall the COVID-era Oscars 5 years ago? We can't blame you if you can't. It was surreal, in retrospect. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Steven Soderbergh, Chloé Zhao and Chadwick Boseman’s widow — among dozens of others — speak out in the definitive oral history of a ceremony that was both a fiasco and a miracle: "I’m going to just spill all secrets." Scott Feinberg's feature.
+ What Simone Ledward Boseman would've said at the Oscars. |
What's Next Twenty-six-year-old Mikey Madison is doing just fine. But for many young stars who walk off with the prize, success is far from guaranteed. When 21-year-old Kate Hudson lost the Oscar for Almost Famous in 2001, her stepfather, Kurt Russell, said to her, "Congratulations — you can now go have your career." It also speaks to the bitter irony that at times comes with an Oscar win for a certain demographic. David Canfield's column. |
His Golden Hour Francis Ford Coppola had not one but two films up for best picture, and not one but two direct relatives nominated as well. But as this exclusive excerpt of The Last Kings of Hollywood recounts, his sweetest victory would be defeating his friend turned rival, superproducer Robert Evans. Paul Fischer's book excerpt. |
The Break Up Hollywood is a town built on relationships, but no professional pairing is quite as intimate as the coupling of star and stylist. So what happens when the connection no longer works? Talent from Jessie Buckley to Pedro Pascal are ditching their longtime dressers: "It’s not personal. It’s business." Laurie Brookins' story. |
Around Town Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dakota Fanning kept close as they premiered Apple TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles on the opening night of SXSW in Austin. Tyriq Withers and Maika Monroe premiered Universal Pictures' Reminders of Him in Hollywood. Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson and Barry Keoghan debuted Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man in NYC. Corey Stoll, Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington, Kate Mara and Leslie Odom Jr. united at the L.A. premiere of their new Apple TV series Imperfect Women. Anastasia Soare was joined by Jennifer Lopez at the An Unforgettable Evening gala in Beverly Hills. All photos from this week's premieres and events. |
The Bottom Line Snapshots from THR's team of critics: Boots Riley's anti-capitalist satire I Love Boosters is "wild, weird and delightfully unique." Ryan Gosling's $200 million-plus budgeted starrer Project Hail Mary is a "thrilling space odyssey warmed by humanity and hope." Colleen Hoover adaptation Reminders of Him is "Not as good as It Ends with Us, better than Regretting You." SXSW doc Capturing Bigfoot is "brimming with compelling characters." Taylor Sheridan's Michelle Pfeiffer series The Madison is "a good show and a bad show, smushed together." Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington and Kate Mara lead a "maddeningly generic murder-among-the-wealthy thriller" Imperfect Women. Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer's Margo's Got Money Troubles is "warm, welcoming and well-acted." |
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